FOUR years ago, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef)-SM ‘Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene [Wash] program for the province of Capiz’ was implemented.

It was symbolic that the Wash program got its funding from water itself. Unicef partnered with SM for a fund-raising campaign, titled ‘Drink for 2,’ where for every SM bottled water purchased, PI went to the Capiz water fund. The objective was to provide children and their families in 10 barangays in five municipalities of Ponteverdra, Maayon, Tapaz, Dao and President Roxas, all in the province of Capiz, a decent water system that would afford them drinking water and basic sanitation, especially latrines and hygiene education.

Before the Unicef-SM project, children in these places frequently got sick of diarrhea and parasitism. According to studies, diarrhea ranked fourth as a leading cause of morbidity for children under five. A random survey in November 2007 showed that 51.39 percent of grade-school pupils have prevalence of parasitism, which ranks seventh as leading cause of children under five morbidity. Today with the Wash program, these municipalities in Capiz now have easy access to water. The project was able to rehabilitate some walkways and paths in the schools for improved safety of the children. All these have affected the well-being and quality of life of 2,298 schoolchildren and 1,334 households.

The proposed budget for the project in Capiz was P2.2 million. SM Prime Holdings Inc. was able to raise P3.4 million from the Drink for 2 campaigns. This was P1.4 million more than the targeted contribution of P2 million. The total expenditure of the project was only P2.2 million, but through local government and community counter parting what was achieved was more than the proposed outcomes. This leaves a significant amount of P1.2 million that can be used in new program sites.

Unicef Country Representative Tomoo Hozumi, in a letter to Annie Garcia of SM, expressed their appreciation and gratitude to the retail giant. He said: ‘Your company’s funding, matched with the local government ana community’s counterpart contributions, allowed us to achieve more than the original targets. We would like to thank you and your team for your continued trust and look forward to further collaboration and partnership for the benefit of Filipino children.’